New for 2020: One of the prototypical midsize crossovers, the Toyota Highlander enters its fourth generation for the 2020 model year. Like its predecessors, the all-new design is be based on the Camry car platform, and a gas-electric hybrid powertrain is available.
The Toyota Highlander has been in continuous production since its introduction for the 2001 model year. It’s a cornerstone model line for Japan’s largest automaker, accounting for hundreds of thousands of unit sales per year in the US. The new fourth generation Toyota Highlander stays true to form, but has been redesigned around the Toyota New Global Architecture.
In plain speak, this means reduced costs for Toyota, and improved ride, handling, and responsiveness for customers.
Despite the shift to a new platform, the Highlander will continue to have three rows of seating, which is by no means a given in the mid-size crossover segment. It ships with Toyota Safety Sense 2.0: a comprehensive suite of active safety features that includes a frontal collision mitigation system, adaptive cruise control, lane departure alert with steering assist, automatic high beams, lane tracing assist, and road sign assist.
The Toyota Highlander has long been a trend-setter in its segment, partly by being among the first midsize crossovers to market. Yet this ground-up redesign for 2020 is long overdue; for each of the first three generations of the Highlander, the model line has ridden on the same aging Toyota K platform, making its underpinnings woefully long in the tooth.
Sometimes, change is good.